Direct Legislation by the Citizenship through the Initiative and Referendum | Page 6

The form of
cantonal Referendum now practiced was but begun (in St. Gall) in 1830,
and forty years ago only five cantons had any Referendum whatever,
and these in the optional form. It is of very recent years that the
movement has become steady toward the general adoption of the
cantonal Referendum. In 1860 but 34 per cent of the Swiss possessed it,
66 per cent delegating their sovereign rights to representatives. But in
1870 the referendariship had risen to 71 per cent, only 29 submitting to
lawmaking officials; and today the proportions are more than 90 per

cent to less than 10.
[Footnote C: For constitutional amendments only.]
The thoughtful reader will ask: Why this continual progress toward a
purer democracy? Wherein lie the inducements to this persistent
revolution?
The answer is this: The masses of the citizens of Switzerland found it
necessary to revolt against their plutocracy and the corrupt politicians
who were exploiting the country through the representative system. For
a peaceful revolution these masses found the means in the working
principles of their communal meetings--the Initiative and
Referendum,--and these principles they are applying throughout the
republic as fast as circumstances admit.[D]
[Footnote D: While the reports of the Secretary of State and "The
History of the Referendum," by Th. Curti, will bear out many of the
statements here made as to how the change from representative to
direct legislation came about, the story as I give it has been written me
by Herr Carl Bürkli, of Zurich, known in his canton as the "Father of
the Referendum."]
The great movement for democracy in Europe that culminated in the
uprising of 1848 brought to the front many original men, who discussed
innovations in government from every radical point of view. Among
these thinkers were Martin Rittinghausen, Emile Girardin, and Louis
Blanc. From September, 1850, to December, 1851, the date of the coup
d'état of Louis Bonaparte, these reformers discussed, in the
"Democratic pacifique," a weekly newspaper of Paris, the subject of
direct legislation by the citizens. Their essays created a sensation in
France, and more than thirty journals actively supported the proposed
institution, when the coup d'état put an end to free speech. The articles
were reprinted in book form in Brussels, and other works on the subject
were afterward issued by Rittinghausen and his co-worker Victor
Considérant. Among Considérant's works was "Solution, ou
gouvernement direct du peuple," and this and companion works that
fell into the hands of Carl Bürkli convinced the latter and other citizens

of Zurich ("an unknown set of men," says Bürkli) of the practicability
of the democratic methods advocated. The subject was widely agitated
and studied in Switzerland, and the fact that the theory was already to
some extent in practice there (and in ancient times had been much
practiced) led to further experiments, and these, attaining success, to
further, and thus the work has gone on. The cantonal Initiative was
almost unknown outside the Landsgemeinde when it was established in
Zurich in 1869. Soon, however, through it and the obligatory
Referendum (to use Herr Bürkli's words): "The plutocratic government
and the Grand Council of Zurich, which had connived with the private
banks and railroads, were pulled down in one great voting swoop. The
people had grown tired of being beheaded by the office-holders after
every election." And politicians and the privileged classes have ever
since been going down before these instruments in the hands of the
people. The doctrines of the French theorists needed but to be engrafted
on ancient Swiss custom, the Frenchmen in fact having drawn upon
Swiss experience.
The Optional and the Obligatory Referendum.
To-day the movement in the Swiss cantons is not only toward the
Referendum, but toward its obligatory form. The practice of the
optional form has revealed defects in it which are inherent.[E]
[Footnote E: The facts relative to the operation of these two forms of
the Referendum have been given me by Monsieur P. Jamin, of
Geneva.]
Geneva's management of the optional cantonal Referendum is typical.
The constitution provides that, certain of the laws being excepted from
the Referendum, and a prerequisite of its operation being the
presentation to the Grand Council of a popular petition, the people may
sanction or reject not only the bulk of the laws passed by the Grand
Council but also the decrees issued by the legislative and executive
powers. The exceptions are (1) "measures of urgence" and (2) the items
of the annual budget, save such as establish a new tax, increase one in
force, or necessitate an issue of bonds. The Referendum cannot be
exercised against the budget as a whole, the Grand Council indicating

the sections which are to go to public vote. In case of opposition to any
measure, a petition for the Referendum is put in circulation.